When will we have a clone? An industry perspective on the typical CLD timeline

Cell line development (CLD) represents a complex but highly critical process during the development of a biological drug. To shed light on this crucial workflow, a team of BioPhorum members (authors) has developed and executed surveys focused on the activities and effort involved in a typical CLD campaign. An average of 27 members from different companies that participate in the BioPhorum CLD working group answered surveys covering three distinguishable stages of a standard CLD process: (1) Pre-transfection, including vector design and construction; (2) Transfection, spanning the initial introduction of vector into cells and subsequent selection and analysis of the pools; and (3) Single Cell Cloning and Lead Clone Selection, comprising methods of isolating single cells and confirming clonal origin, subsequent expansion and screening processes, and methods for identifying and banking lead clones. The surveys were very extensive, including a total of 341 questions split between antibody and complex molecule CLD processes. In this survey review, the authors interpret and highlight responses for antibody development and, where relevant, contrast complex molecule development challenges to provide a comprehensive industry perspective on the typical time and effort required to develop a CHO production cell line.